Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Slayer Collection (Spike) - Region 2 DVD

By the fifth season, Spike was a very different vampire--with a chip in his brain that stopped him hurting humans and he fell desperately in love with a Buffy, who had not yet learned to trust him; "Fool for Love" was the episode in which we learned Spike's back-story: he was a minor Victorian poet, turned by Drusilla when rejection in love led him down the wrong alley, his entire hyper-aggressive persona is based on a need to hide his sensitivity. Spike was always one of the main focuses of the show's combination of acute wit and passionate romanticism and these four episodes admirably sample what made him so appealing to fans.

On the DVD: The Slayer Collection: Spike also includes a documentary about the history of Spike as a character in which James Marsters talks intelligently about his portrayal of his most famous role. --Roz Kaveney